Attorney General Peter F. Kilmartin announced that Lemar Wilburn (DOB: 7/9/92), with a last known address of 5 Sixth Street, Attleboro, pleaded nolo contendere today to the May 2011 murder of 26 year old Princeton Miller. Wilburn pleaded guilty before Superior Court Justice Kristin E. Rodgers on the day the trial was scheduled to begin.
Under the terms of the plea agreement, Justice Rodgers sentenced Wilburn to 60 years, with 35 to serve and the remainder suspended with probation on the charge of second degree murder.
Had the case proceeded to trial, the State was prepared to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that on the evening of May 7, 2011, Lemar Wilburn stabbed and killed Princeton Miller. That evening, Miller was visiting a friend on Mawney Street in Providence. The same evening, Wilburn was attending a BBQ at a friend's house, also on Mawney Street.
At approximately 10:15 p.m., four young men, including the defendant, walked by the house where a dog owned by Miller's friend began to bark. After a brief verbal altercation between Miller and the four men, Miller retreated to the porch of the house. The four men entered the yard where Wilburn attached and fatally stabbed Miller, inflicting stab wounds to the neck, chest, back and leg.
During the commission of the crime, Wilburn dropped nearly $200 in cash and his baseball cap at the scene, which were later recovered by police. The defendant and the three other men fled the scene and went back to the party, where the defendant admitted the crime to several people.
During the course of the investigation, Providence Police were able to identify and question the three men who were with the defendant at the time of the murder. All three identified Wilburn as the one who stabbed Miller. An arrest warrant was issued for the Wilburn. He was apprehended by the Attleboro Police and later questioned by the Providence Police, during which time he admitted to being at the scene and stabbing the victim.
Providence Police detectives Maurice Green and Daniel O'Connell led the investigation. Assistant Attorney General Feidlim Gill and Special Assistant Attorney General John Moreira prosecuted the case on behalf of the Office of Attorney General.